Thermonuclear weapons can produce much larger explosions than fission weapons; the first

thermonuclear test explosion had a yield of about 10,000 kilotons (or 10 megatons). Today,
U.S. warheads commonly have explosive yields of several hundred kilotons.
Essentially, the destructive energy produced by such weapons is the result of three separate
but nearly simultaneous explosions. The first is the detonation of chemical explosives that
surround a hollow sphere (or "pit") of plutonium-239 metal. The force from this blast is
directed inward, compressing the pit and bringing its atoms closer together. When the
plutonium pit becomes dense enough to sustain a fission chain reaction (a condition termed
"supercritical"), a neutron generator injects neutrons into the pit to initiate the fission chain
reaction. Together, these chemical and fission explosions are known as the nuclear "primary."
The primary produces the high temperatures and pressures required to ignite fusion reactions
in the "secondary," which actually produces the third explosion. In fusion, two or more
atomic nuclei fuse into one heavier nucleus and, in the process, release a great deal of energy.
In a thermonuclear weapon, isotopes of hydrogen undergo fusion, which is why these
weapons are commonly called hydrogen or H-bombs.
In practice, a thermonuclear weapon (such as that illustrated in the diagram) is even more
complicated than the description above suggests.
First, a pure fission primary is inefficient since the plutonium pit will blow itself apart before
much of the available plutonium-239 fissions. To reduce the amount of plutonium needed,
the fission reaction can be "boosted" so that a higher fraction of the plutonium fissions. For
boosted primaries, hydrogen gas (consisting of the isotopes deuterium and tritium, which
have one and two neutrons, respectively, in addition to the one proton that all hydrogen atoms
have) is placed inside the hollow center of the pit. As the plutonium fissions, enough heat is
produced to cause the "boost" gas to undergo fusion, releasing a burst of high-energy
neutrons that, in turn, induce additional fissions in the pit.
The fusion fuel in the secondary takes the form of lithium deuteride (a solid compound of
lithium and deuterium). Inside the layer of fusion fuel is a fission "spark plug" consisting of
either plutonium-239 or uranium-235. As the primary explosion compresses the fusion fuel
from the outside, the spark plug material becomes supercritical and fissions, heating the
fusion fuel from the inside and helping to initiate the fusion reactions. Finally, a layer of
uranium that surrounds the fusion fuel undergoes fission in response to the neutrons released
by the fusion reactions, generally contributing more than half of the total explosive yield of a
thermonuclear weapon.